Half Marathon Coming Up

 Howdy everyone! I am old.  You know you are old when you qualify for free gym memberships as a "Silver Sneaker."  You know you are old when you play pickleball in the middle of the day with other people who no longer work. To be fair, I still work part time as a free-lancer, but no denying. I am old!

Despite that, my daughter got me into running a half marathon on October 21, so I have no choice but to run more than I would typically like. Today, I ran 6.5 miles, building up my long run to a maximum of 10 miles by mid October, race on October 21.

Any old-man training advice is welcomed. We oldsters have to worry about getting injured or collapsing, etc. My old guy training program does not look anything like my younger days. I limit myself to 3 or maximum 4 runs per week, then cross-train with mainly swimming, pickleball, and some biking. I have come up with an interesting swimming workout/method that I used last winter to prepare myself for skiing at 11,000 feet, and it seemed to help. Underwater oxygen deprivation swims! My max is about 25 yards, but I am now mixing it in with interval-like training, and doing underwater "intervals."  These consist of about 20 yards underwater, with or without fins, followed by 25 yards easy swim back to the start.

Glad to finally be posting again!

Mark

 Hard to believe that it has been over 45 years since I last saw Tony Sykes.  The great drought was broken when Dr. K. organized a day out at the Parker River Wildlife Refuge on Plum Island..

We started out at Eric's place in Ipswich where we had a chance to catch up with his wife Harriet.  Then it was off to Bob Lobster and a walk in the refuge.  It was a gorgeous fall day, and a wonderful time was had by all.  Photos in the photo album linked below:

Plum Island Walk

 I haven't seen it mentioned here, but there was a star studded feature film that was set at Binghamton, and even had scenes shot on campus and the local environs.  The Rewrite staring Hugh Grant.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2509850/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk

 Should we go on a run?  

    Are you kidding?

How about a hike?  

    How about a walk?

...and so the planning was complete for a pre-Thanksgiving walk in Harold Parker State Park.

A wonderful time was had by all, and it was a real treat to meet Eric's daughters and son-in-law!

 Dr. K. moved to the Hub of the Universe and in early July he and I got together for a hike in the Breakheart Reservation.  It was at the summer minimum for COVID before Delta came to town, so after the hike we had a nice lunch at a local deli.

Hi, folks, sorry we've been dormant for a while, but don't worry, we're back!  At Age 61, I decided I needed to get "back to the track," so I entered an open track meet last Thursday night here in Buffalo, NY.  I ran the mile, and then, being a glutton for punishment, also attempted the 800. Results are not posted yet (will let you know when), but unofficially, I think I ran 5:59 in the mile, and 2:50 in the 800. And since my wife was kind enough to snap a few pictures and take some video, I created this short video for your viewing pleasure. (see link below photos)

runnin' against the wind (age)

Well the holidays are coming, and in case you haven't picked out a gift for that special someone on your list I may have just the thing:

Shelly and Rhoda: the story of coach Gary Truce's paranormal investigation of a young family's otherworldly experiences.

Available at Amazon (click the link!)

Chris Lennon

Interval Training to Perform At Your Peak: Part 2

Most Of The Visitors To The Blog Who Still Have Their Memories In Tact Probably Remember Me More For Picking Up Their Disgusting Towels After Practice Than For Anything I Did With Running Flats On.  

I've been very busy in advance of publishing my memoir in a few short months to create publicity for the book and begin to share some valuable insights I've picked up over the past 13 years of exclusively running sprints, practicing mindfulness, and getting my head examined(literally).   

Although I was very uncomfortable in my own skin circa 1972-1976, I looked up to varsity members of SUNY Binghamton's Track & Cross Country Teams and have fond memories of this very good group of guys.  I hope you enjoy the video.

Regards,
Mitchell Milch, Manager of The SUNY B Track Team, 1973-1976.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cb3JT4cY_KA 

What I did for my summer vacation...

The blog has been pretty quiet.  I'm missing my fix of hearing about Mark's athletic activities.

I had an okay summer.  We started with a spring trip riding the Great Allegheny Passage:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/kwajspeedo/albums/72157667675568845

We didn't do it point to point but did out and backs to cover the whole thing.  So, I guess I can say we did the whole thing twice.

We did the Parks and Trails New York Erie Canal Tour.  I haven't put the pictures into an album yet.  It was a fun tour.  The riding on the canal trail got a bit boring, but the area and historical places were great.  I would tour in that area again.

We also did the Cycle Mass tour again this year.  Unfortunately the routing was pretty bad.

Blast From The Past: Expression of Gratitude

Dear SUNY Binghamton Runners,

Everything I always wanted to know about success and was afraid to look at as mine to own was there for the taking when I began to observe and reflect on my experiences training.  If I’m to split hairs on this subject I’d say that many of the lessons about success I garnered from running came after my days of logging miles and running distance events was behind me. The past 13 years or so I’ve been running sprints four days per week, a “grand” total of 6-7 miles per week.  This has been the period that the benefits of serious training have generalized to other spheres of my life. 

Why would I think you might be interested in what I have to say about such matters some 40 years after the last outdoor track meet I accompanied many of you on?  Good question.

The answer is that this a letter of thanks to so many of you who inspired me to discover my “inner athlete.”  I owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to so many of you for modeling the grit, determination, self-discipline, passion, athleticism, and mental toughness you modeled racing on the track and in cross country events.

I also felt confident that you would get a huge kick out of seeing me in action on my website at Fountainofyouthfulmusic.com. 

Below is an incomplete list of folks I fondly remember made a difference in my life in ways most of you never gave a thought to.  If I left out some names please forgive me as I am 61 years old and rather prone these days to “senior moments.” I’d like to thank Coach Truce for helping me fill out the list.

Thanks again.

Regards,

Mitchell Milch, Harpur College, Class of 1976, Manager of SUNY Binghamton's Track & Field Team

Coach Gary Truce

Coach Jim Calloway

Gary Wallace

Paul Mucci

John Moreau

Bill Morrissey

Mike Cunningham-Okay I snuck him onto the list

Tom Fusco

George Archie

Henry Shuford

Tony Sykes

Gabe Kaplan

Bill McMullen

Bob Nigro

Merritt Hartblay

Sheldon Melnitsky

Eric Kaplan

Dave Moin

Kevin McCarthy

James Jeter

Frank Walters

Dave Cody

Oliver Walcott

Neil Schutzman

Bob Daniels

Richard Seidman

Dave Caplin

Bill Gallagher

Steve Weintraub

Spring Training

It's been a long time!  Spring training is beginning, very late!  I'm out of shape!  Ran 4.3 miles a couple days ago on trails, about 8:35 pace......hope everyone else is running more than that! (or biking, rowing, etc.).

Mark

Only Race of the Year!

It has been a minimal racing year for me, but with a 5k cross country race held literally a half mile from my house, I could not resist.

Check out the results here!

Overall, I was pleased with my time and place, considering my relative lack of training (15 to 20 miles per week the last 3 months or so), and almost no speed workout, with the exception of a few fartleks.

Mark

Update on Spring Training

Did three 5-mile runs in a row this past Friday, Saturday, Sunday, about 8:28 to 8:30 pace.  Did not feel great, but not bad for this time of year.  How is everyone else's spring training coming along?  I would really like to hear from our numerous listeners in Latvia, Russia, and other parts of the world.

Blog "Facelift"

Well, I tried to give the blog a facelift, by rearranging it into two columns instead of three and "tinkering" with the text and background colors.  In the end, I'm not sure it's an improvement, but at least it's different!

Our Blog All-time Audience Stats

I thought this was interesting.  Here are our all time statistics in no. of Page Views since the formation of our blog several years ago.  I don't know if all the foreigners viewing our blog are real people, or just internet "robots", but Russia and Eastern Europe seem quite interested in Mark and Eric's Running and Dave's Wisdom!

Preparing for Spring Racing?

Frozen Upper Falls, Letchworth State Park, NY

I have been able to do more cross country skiing this year than I have in a long time, due to the prolonged, cold, snowy winter.  It has actually been very enjoyable.  Winter photos are shown below!!

Young Buck and L.T. Raybuck XC Skiing in Houghton, NY

"Ice Volcano" in Letchworth Park, 50 feet high, formed simply by a pond fountain left on all winter!

Chris Lennon, working out.

This is peripherally about exercise, because we are thinking about doing a back-country canoe trip next fall.  I had some fun satisfying my camping stove fetish by testing out a "pop can" alcohol stove in the back yard.  Of course I made a video: Pop Can Stove Experiment.

Too Cold!

With temps in the single digits here, I have been relegated to indoor biking the last two nights.  Maybe Speedo will care to comment here?

A long absence, but still running!

Wow, due to "real life" commitments (like going to work every day), and family commitments, I have been lax in blogging, and thus, thousands of follower have been disappointed.  But, to alleviate concerns, I am still running.  However, I have only raced twice this year:  a 5k road race in April, and a one mile "alumni" race with my old high school (I ran against the current high school kids) in May.

Except for training runs on trails, I essentially skipped cross country season this year, very unusual for me.  In the 5k race in April, I managed just over 20 minutes, and finished second overall out of about 130.  I know, likely the slowest second place finish ever, nothing to boast about.  I was gaining on the winner right up until the end, and was only two seconds behind, but ran out of real estate.  My wife was disappointed, as for this particular race, there was an unusually large winner's trophy, and with a winning time of over 20 minutes, seems like it was in reach.  Results are here.

In the mile run, which included about a dozen high schoolers, and a couple oldsters like me, I managed a 5:45 last May.  Nothing too swift, but it was about 85 degrees that day.

I'm not going to predict when my next race or time trial will be...too many variables in my life right now.  However, training has been going well, getting in 25 to 30 miles per week the last few weeks, including some tempo and fartlek runs.  A few 4 to 5 milers have been under an 8 minute pace, and today's 5 mile run with a 1.5 mile tempo run was encouraging, running the tempo portion at about 7:04/mile pace.

That's it for now!!!

Mark